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"The first step in designing a new Torment story is to ask the primary question," (Colin McComb, Torment designer,) wrote. "I’m older than I was when I worked on Torment, and my questions now are different than they were. I have children now, and I look at the world through their eyes and through mine, and that’s changed me—in fact, the intervening years have changed me so much that I have new answers for the central story in the original Torment. So now that I know what can change the nature of a man, I ask: What does one life matter?... and does it matter at all?"

Edit -
They've announced the new name, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and put up a website. You can create an account and get notified when they start their crowdfunding drive, as well as submit & vote on ideas. Right now the ideas are mostly for the upcoming kickstarter (tier levels and potential rewards).

Edit - The Kickstarter is live! It's set to end at Friday Apr 5, 8:00pm EDT.

From the Kickstarter page:

Here’s a brief summary of our story:

You are the Last Castoff, the final link in the chain of the lives of the being they call the Changing God. He once was a man who discovered a way to use the relics of the ancients to cheat death and skip across the face of centuries in a succession of bodies. But he never knew that his bodies lived on as his consciousness fled, a new consciousness arising in each. Now he has awakened an age-old enemy, the Angel of Entropy, and his days of change are gone as the Angel hunts him and all his works. That includes... you.

With the ever-present threat of oblivion looming over you, you must find your sire before he—and you—are eradicated by the avenging Angel. You will find allies and enemies among the other castoffs. You might inhabit their minds for a time through the devices called “the Meres,” turning their lives to your advantage. You will travel across the face of the Ninth World, and above and below it, with your companions at your side—or alone, if you wish. Your quest will take you to alternate dimensions and distant worlds under strange suns; particular Meres might afford you even more bizarre experiences, such as folding time itself. And you will build your legacy as you find your answer to the question:

What does one life matter?

How Is Torment: Tides of Numenera Similar to Planescape: Torment?

We're crafting Torment with the goal of creating a gameplay experience like that evoked by Planescape: Torment (or PS:T). We want Torment to challenge, reward, surprise, and entertain you in ways that PS:T did. To do that, we examined PS:T carefully, and took these four pillars as our foundation:

A Deep, Thematically Satisfying Story. The philosophical underpinnings of Torment drive the game, both mechanically and narratively. Your words, choices, and actions will be your primary weapons.

A World Unlike Any Other. The game has a fantastic, original setting, with awe-inspiring painterly visuals, imaginative locations, truly offbeat items, and massive feats of magic. In Numenera, however, "magic" is actually something surprisingly different.

A Rich, Personal Narrative. The story is thoughtful and character-driven—epic in feel but a deeply personal narrative, with nontraditional characters and companions who have their own motivations and desires that drive them throughout the game.

Reactivity, Choice, and Real Consequences. The game emphasizes replayability and reactivity, and your choices will make a real difference. You can play the game with a different approach and discover entirely new pathways. Most important, we won't tell you how to play. The best ending is the one you choose, flowing naturally from your actions throughout the game.

How Is Torment Different From Planescape: Torment?

Torment is not a sequel to PS:T. It does not continue the stories of PS:T or its characters.

Torment is set in Numenera’s Ninth World, a new tabletop RPG setting created by renowned designer Monte Cook (he and Colin wrote much of the material for the Planescape tabletop setting).

Torment will use a new rules system that's based on the Numenera system but adapted specifically for a computer RPG.

We'll strive to make Torment's combat system and encounters an engaging and entertaining part of the gameplay. We'll connect them narratively to the overall story. And, continuing the Torment tradition, we'll make most if not all combat avoidable.

According to Kicktraq (which I know is rarely accurate), they're trending towards $44.8M or 4,980% of their goal. Man, can you imagine a $45M Torment game?!

Yeah, too early for that to be a valid estimate (which it isn't really intended to be anyway). Kicktraq does it's estimates by day, which throws things off even more near the start. $45M would put it in the blockbuster AAA space, double the average development budget. Torment has ludicrous momentum, but I don't think it's quite that much. Wasteland 2 asked for 900K and got 2.9M, but Torment has a bit more name recognition, and a slightly more recent cult following. I'd guess it'll end up around the 4-5M mark, but I'm prepared to be wrong.

Im a late comer to the whole RPG field. I grew up with civ,total war and starcraft and missed all these kind of games.
I didnt know I liked rpgs until dragon age origins. My question is Do you think this game- its character models mainly - will look at least as good as DAO ? I know they will be vastly different games BUT my problem is I find it hard to play with dated graphics (by dated i mean pre when i entered the field) after loving DAO, NEW Vegas, witcher , Skyrim etc I tried to go back and get into some of these glory day RPGs (balders gate etc) and failed.

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist. Hélder Pessoa Câmara

Im a late comer to the whole RPG field. I grew up with civ,total war and starcraft and missed all these kind of games.
I didnt know I liked rpgs until dragon age origins. My question is Do you think this game- its character models mainly - will look at least as good as DAO ? I know they will be vastly different games BUT my problem is I find it hard to play with dated graphics (by dated i mean pre when i entered the field) after loving DAO, NEW Vegas, witcher , Skyrim etc I tried to go back and get into some of these glory day RPGs (balders gate etc) and failed.

The new Torment will undoubtedly go for style over polygon count, but it will look better than the original Baldur's Gate. I would guess it will be at the technical level of Dragon Age: Origins, but much more stylized (atmospheric).

Im a late comer to the whole RPG field. I grew up with civ,total war and starcraft and missed all these kind of games.
I didnt know I liked rpgs until dragon age origins. My question is Do you think this game- its character models mainly - will look at least as good as DAO ? I know they will be vastly different games BUT my problem is I find it hard to play with dated graphics (by dated i mean pre when i entered the field) after loving DAO, NEW Vegas, witcher , Skyrim etc I tried to go back and get into some of these glory day RPGs (balders gate etc) and failed.

Yeah, there was a Wasteland 2 update that said the reason they're launching the Torment KS before the Wasteland 2 one delivers is so they can keep their pre-production team busy (and thus employed) and so they can use a lot of the same tools they've already developed for Wasteland 2:

• We do want to be abundantly clear that no Wasteland money is to be spent developing Torment. No Torment money is being spent on Wasteland 2. That said, lots of tools, plug-ins and pipeline processes that have taken man months to create will be shared between the projects if we can keep team continuity.
• The pre-production of Torment is not going to hinder the development of Wasteland in any way. As explained above, they are different teams during the pre-production.

They're at $1.6 and climbing..... Wasteland was 2.9, so it'll be interesting to see where this comes out.

What I actually found more interesting to think about is the way they're trying to keep their pipeline full.... his talk, in the Wasteland update, about the 'team and a half' approach they're using is really interesting.

This also means that, around the time that Wasteland ships, they'll need to come back with a new idea, to keep feeding the monster. Wonder what it'll be?

Boy, being on the half team would definitely be the fun part of the job!

The new Torment will undoubtedly go for style over polygon count, but it will look better than the original Baldur's Gate. I would guess it will be at the technical level of Dragon Age: Origins, but much more stylized (atmospheric).

Same engine as Wasteland 2 and other recent games, like Path of Exile, so just check those out for an idea of what can be done.

There's no materials safety sheet for astatine. If there were, it would just be the word "NO", scrawled over and over again in charred blood. - Randall Munroe

The new Torment will undoubtedly go for style over polygon count, but it will look better than the original Baldur's Gate. I would guess it will be at the technical level of Dragon Age: Origins, but much more stylized (atmospheric).

Same engine as Wasteland 2 and other recent games, like Path of Exile, so just check those out for an idea of what can be done.

Heh. I managed to miss the obvious. Listen to Robear

So I can make myself at least a bit useful, here's Wasteland 2 gameplay footage.

In at $75, but I really wish there was a way to get the $35 tier and just add on digital copies of the Numenera RPG player guide and core book for, say, $20 each? and make it $75 without the extras. I'll be willing to give up the alpha/beta test slot so that I can come in to the game and story fresh.

Kicking myself for missing out on the Numenera Kickstarter now.

Vector wrote:

What did you think of Arcanum?

YES PLEASE. And good gobb someone get it right this time.

Dialing it back abit: since Wasteland was tile-based and P:T was isometric, someone hire inExile to redo old classic tile-based and isometric games as long as people are willing to give them money to do so.

In at $75, but I really wish there was a way to get the $35 tier and just add on digital copies of the Numenera RPG player guide and core book for, say, $20 each? and make it $75 without the extras. I'll be willing to give up the alpha/beta test slot so that I can come in to the game and story fresh.

Kicking myself for missing out on the Numenera Kickstarter now.

Vector wrote:

What did you think of Arcanum?

YES PLEASE. And good gobb someone get it right this time.

Dialing it back abit: since Wasteland was tile-based and P:T was isometric, someone hire inExile to redo old classic tile-based and isometric games as long as people are willing to give them money to do so.